VBT – Meditation 92.2
Consciousness Is Inexpressible
But the first basic requirement is to PUT MINDSTUFF IN SUCH INEXPRESSIBLE FINENESS….
Thoughts can be expressed. There is not a single thought which is inexpressible, nor can there be.
If it is inexpressible you cannot think it; if you can think it, it is expressible. There is not a single thought which you can say is inexpressible. The moment you can think of it, it has become expressible – you have already expressed it to yourself.
Consciousness, pure consciousness, is inexpressible. That is why mystics go on saying that they cannot express what they know. Logicians always raise the question that if you know, then why can’t you say it? And their argument has meaning and significance. If you really say that you know then why can’t you express it?
For a logician, knowledge must be expressible – that which can be known can be made known to others, there is no problem. If you have known it, then where is the problem? You can make it known to others. But the mystic’s knowledge is not of thoughts. He has not known it as a thought, he has known it as a feeling. So really, it is not good to say, “I know God.” It is better to say, “I feel.” It is not good to say, “I have known God.” It is better to say, “I have felt him.” That is a more accurate description of the phenomenon because the ‘knowledge’ is through the heart it is like feeling, it is not like knowledge.
PUT MINDSTUFF IN SUCH INEXPRESSIBLE FINENESS…. Mindstuff, consciousness, CHITT, is inexpressible. If a single thought is moving, it is expressible. So, to PUT MINDSTUFF IN SUCH INEXPRESSIBLE FINENESS means to come to a point where you are conscious, but not conscious of any thought; where you are alert, but there is no thought moving in the mind. This is a delicate point and very difficult – you can miss it easily.
We know two states of mind. One is when thoughts are there. When thoughts are there, you cannot move to the heart. Then we know another state of mind – when thoughts are not there. When thoughts are not there, you fall asleep. Then too, you cannot move to the heart. Every night, for a few moments, for a few hours, you fall out of thinking. Thoughts cease, but you don’t reach to the heart because you are unconscious. So a very delicate balance is needed. Thoughts must cease as they cease in deep sleep, when there is no dream – and you must be as alert as you are while awake. These two points must meet. Mind must be as thoughtless as it is in deep sleep, but you must not be asleep, you must be perfectly alert, aware.
When awareness and this thoughtlessness meet, it is meditation. That is why Patanjali says that samadhi is like SUSHUPTI. The highest ecstasy, samadhi, is like the deepest sleep, with only one difference: in it you are not asleep. But the quality is the same – thoughtless, dreamless, undisturbed, without a single ripple, totally calm and quiet, but alert. When you are aware and there is no thought, you will feel a sudden transformation in your consciousness. The center changes.
You are thrown back. You are thrown to the heart. And from the heart, when you look at the world, there is no world, there is only God. From the head, when you look towards existence, there is no God, there is only material existence.
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